I'm a star because

"God is the sum of patience and the essence of kindly good will. We please Him most, not by frantically trying to make ourselves good, but by throwing ourselves into His arms with all our imperfections, and believing that He understands everything and loves us still."

-A.W. Tozer, The Root of the Righteous

I posted this quote last year at some point. I was got a simple reminder of a piece of this sweet, beautiful truth this past weekend. I doggy-sat for some friends of mine and they had a little poster that their 6 year old daughter made at school on the fridge.

It had a place for her to put a picture of herself, then it had her tell about her favorite things, colors, people, hobbies, etc. At the bottom at the poster it had a place that said "I am a star because..."

She wrote "because Jesus made me new on the inside".

My heart melted at the sweetness and pureness of those words.

I thought about how simple that truth is. That we are new creations with Jesus.

At 6 if I were asked to write why I was a star I would have most likely written something like "because I have every dog and horse breed memorized" or just make something crazy up like "because I saved a whole litter of kittens from a burning building yesterday".

She has been continuously and consistently given that truth.

The truth that brings light, and meaning to life.

The truth that takes the old ugly away and covers it up with grace and love.

The truth that when it's in your life and mind,

when it's flowing through your veins,

and making your heart race from the joy it brings,

it is like nothing else.

It's evident truth.

Even if your 6. Writing about how Jesus is the only thing that makes you a star, because He made you new.

I want truth to seep out of my pores like that.

Jesus has made me new.

He understands everything, sees everything, and still loves me.

Continuously and consistently.

I have to keep telling myself...

"From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Happy News

I am completely finished with my statistics class!

Boy oh boy does this bring so much joy!

This class has taken up so much summertime. When I haven't been working I have either been doing statistics or thinking "oh man, I should be doing statistics right now".

Not only is being done with statistics exciting because I don't have any more classes this summer, it's also exciting because this was my last 'non-nursing' (and summer) class EVER. The rest of my college career, just two semesters, will be strictly nursing school. YAY!

I am getting so close.

And so excited.

I also go to New Orleans tomorrow.

What a great week.

Mixed Emotions

This picture brings happiness and sadness to my heart.

Why?

Well, clearly it brings happiness because it's of one of my favorite people. It was a day that we celebrated summer by swimming in the Texas shaped pool at her apartment and I made it a point to swim in the panhandle. After swimming we made berry smoothies, sat on the porch and talked. All of that equals happiness.

Sadness because it was the last picture I took with my new beautiful camera before it broke. Technically it wasn't "new" just new to me. Robyn got a camera upgrade, so I got her old one. It was a huge upgrade for me though. And I was loving every minute of having it.

I took the poor camera to the geek squad at best buy, which by the way, I love that they wear skinny black ties, it's adorable. Anyway, they told me that it would cost $84 to send it in and have them diagnose it, and at least $140 to repair but it very well could be more.

All of that equals sadness.

So, if you're noticing a decline in the quality of my pictures, now you know why.

I'm thinking about buying just a used body of the same camera online but I'm not sure about that yet.

Until then, feel free to stare at that picture (like I will be doing), and enjoy the beauty of digital SLR quality.

Favorite Video

This is my favorite video of the year thus far:

I first saw it when Andrew and I were watching Pardon the Interruption (a sports debate show). I'm usually not that into it, but I definitely had Andrew rewind it a few too many times after this clip. I sensed that he didn't quite think it was as funny as I did, so I pulled it up on youtube later to get my fix. It never stops being funny to me.

It's only downfall is that it doesn't have sound. Don't you want to know what that poor mascot is dancing too. I do. But, since I don't know, I can only assume. So this is what I assume. Play them at the same time for the best effect.

Speaking of Andrew, I'll be headed to New Orleans for a visit on Wednesday...SO EXCITED.

Memory Lane

Robyn and I hung out last night. While we were enjoying some of Rosa's amazing fine dining, and scrumptious sopaipillas (totally had to google that to figure out how to spell it) we started talking about Costa Rica.

We've only talked about Costa Rica once since we've gotten back, and it was when we were telling other people stories.

It is so fun to relive good memories with the person you made them with.

I wanted to post a few of the memories that I had already forgotten so I never ever ever forget. Or at least if I do forget I can come back and read this post and remember all over again.

I want to remember:

How we tried to be smart the entire trip. Spent more money than we wanted to the first night so we could lay down in a safe place for 3 hours instead of being on the streets of San Jose, refused rides from strange men (even though we walked miles every day just to get food, and a ride would have been quite nice), didn't go dancing with other strange men, bought bottled water, etc, etc. Except the ONE time we were stupid it had to do with a creepy man asking us if we had any candy. Seriously? That's like the number one thing we are taught as children; stay away from strangers...especially when they are talking about candy. This cracked me up when I put it together last night.

Robyn said one of the scariest moments for her was watching me in the ocean when the waves were really rough. We tried to not go at this time of the day, but we slept in really late one day and had to get some beach time in. Robyn was smart and stayed on the beach, but I thought I was tough enough to battle the waves. Apparently it looked like I was going to drown. She said she would see my head for a second and think "ohh good she's okay" then another wave would come and sweep me away again. I think I felt in control most of the time. I have to admit that there were a few panicky moments, but for the most part I knew I was going to make it. :)

That the guy who ran the hostel in San Jose uncannily resembled Barack Obama.

How we spent almost 3 days total in Mexico City out of our 8 day trip...not on purpose.

When we were on our way back to San Jose our bus broke down on top of a mountain, people were scurrying, getting off, and talking in spanish way too fast for us to understand. Robyn and I sat quietly looking around at the chaos, then a surfer who spoke english looked at us and said "get off the bus, another one is coming". Well, another one came, but we didn't make the cut. So we waited for another bus. It came, it was crowded, and hot, and there were not two seats together. It eventually dropped us off in this shady neighborhood in San Jose were we quickly got off, found our packs, and began walking down the alley of this shady neighborhood. Robyn found a red car (which are normally taxis in Costa Rica...but you really never know) and handed the guy the address to our hostel. Every time we got in a car we were uncertain if we would make it out of that car. We made it to our hostel, and then went to eat at Quiznos where Robyn amazed me with her spanish sandwich ordering skills.

We decided last night that we want to take our families there some day, and show them the beauty of the place where our wildest adventure happened.

Rocky Road

There's nothing like coming back from working out, reading blogs, and seeing this.

I think I just defeated the purpose of working out just staring and drooling over those.

This is one moment I'm grateful I don't have an oven.

Want a surprising wake up call?

It's simple. Just move into a dorm and be an RA.

This morning about 5 new students and their parents just walked right into my room. Thankfully I had already been woken up by the polite one who knocked 5 minutes earlier and had a chance to become a tiny bit presentable.

I looked up at them as they pranced in "Hi?"

"Oh, HI! We're just looking around."

"Okay, well, this is my room, and this is me in my pajama's. I think you've had the grand tour now. But the show room is down the hall to the left and you're..."

"Ohhhh. THANKS!"

(going on in side my head): "I hope you're not on my wing next year."

(not inside my head): "You're welcome. Have a nice day"

New life lesson: Never write on a marker board "The RA is in room #*** if you need anything" (That's not a curse word, it's my room number in a discrete fashion so someone doesn't come and get me).

Lake love

There are so many things to love about the lake.

Like:

Getting your breath taken away a little from jumping in the cold water after sitting in the sun for a while.

Riding on a boat so fast that you can feel your eye lids being pushed by the wind.

Being able to rest your head on your life jacket whenever your neck gets kinda tired.

Flying off of a tube and skimming across the water.

The smell of sunscreen.

Waving at the other boaters. People are so friendly on the lake. Everyone waves and smiles (or in Belton, raises their beer cans and hollers "YEEEEEEHAWWWWW!!!").

Letting your hair air dry as crazy as it wants to, and not caring a single bit.

Watching the sunset on the water.

There's just something magical about it all.

It's so simple, and so perfect.

This evening I felt like it was summer for the first time.

It was great. Exactly what I needed.

A great big dose of happiness, mixed with sunshine and fishy smelling water.

Pretty delicious if you ask me.

Thoughts on this summer

I can't remember the third embarrassing moment I thought of the other day. I should have written them down the second I thought about them because it has left my mind completely. I'm sure it will come back at some point when it's completely useless information. Probably in a moment like when my nursing instructor is asking me why I'm about to give a certain medication, and what it's action is, all I'll be able to think of is that 3rd embarrassing moment.

All that to say; I'll tell you about it when I remember.

Every single ounce of me is ready to be done with this statistics class. I'm getting there, but it feels like it's taking me forever.

I've been struggling the past couple of days to have a good attitude about this summer. I started out the summer with the thought that it may not be the most exciting summer ever, but it's my last one as a college student and I need to soak up every moment, enjoy where I am and what I am doing. That has not been my attitude the past couple of days. I've been almost bitter. Looking at pictures on facebook of amazing summer adventures, beautiful sunsets in the mountains, and people getting to be around the one they love has made me feel like I'm missing out on the joy and freedom of summer.

And then yesterday I was reminded of the shortness of life.

How in one crazy mixed up second, your life on earth can end.

That kind of put things in perspective for me.

I can find joy in sitting with a 68 year old delusional patient for 8 hours.

I can find adventure and beautiful sunsets in Belton.

The one I love is just a phone call away,

and even though it's hard sometimes, there is not much that is sweeter than that voice.

There is something to be grateful for in every moment.

It's too bad it takes something rocking my world to figure that one out.

Embarrassing Moment 2

So, as you can tell (if you're not reading this from google reader) I changed up the place a little. I figured it was time for a change...and it was a great way to procrastinate. I like it.

Here's embarrassing moment #2:

7th grade.

How is it that my two top embarrassing moments happened in the same year?

I'm not sure. It was my lucky year, I guess.

History class was always one of my favorite classes, even through high school. I think my love for history class started in 7th grade, but not because of the subject matter. A bunch of my favorite friends were in my history class. However, I remember the teacher as a very uptight, angry woman. In hindsight though, I think that my personality as kid probably brought that out in people. Anyway, I had some funny friends. Anna (a girl who I got into A LOT of trouble with) was cracking me up one day during group time in history. I got to laughing so hard that I peed my pants. In 7th grade. In front of an entire class of other 7th graders. It wasn't just a little pee either.

The chair was wet.

The floor was wet.

A kid's shoe was wet.

Not really on that last one...thankfully.

The teacher was SO upset with me. I guess she thought I did it on purpose. I'm not sure what kind of insecure 7th grader would pee their own pants in class, but that's what she thought. So I got sent to the principal. The principal sent me to the nurse. The nurse sent me to the locker room to change into my sweat pants from track practice.

I returned to history class with my fresh pants on. Surprisingly no one made fun of the fact that I peed my pants...just that I was now going commando.

Embarrassing Moment 1

Last night at work some of the ladies were discussing their most embarrassing moments. Since I'm new, and just some young'n student with no experience, I'm not really welcome in their conversations. So instead of participating, I eavesdrop and attempt to hold in my laughter until one of them catches me and orders me to go wipe someone's behind.

Behind wiping is beside the point though.

What I was getting to was that they made me think of my most embarrassing moments. I know I must have more, because I could only think of 3. I think think the issue is that I hardly ever get embarrassed. Even in these "most embarrassing moments" I wasn't all that embarrassed. So since they weren't as traumatizing as one would expect, I guess my brain refuses to remember.

Here we go:

Embarrassing moment #1:

At a pool party in 7th grade, I was wearing a brand new bathing suit. One that I was very proud of. It was a little too big, probably because my grandma liked things to last for as long as possible and convinced me that it would be better to buy one that would fit next year, too! The boys were having a flip/diving competition and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try and show some pre-teen boys who was boss. So I went up to the diving board where I confidently announced that I was the champion and did the most memorable dive of my life. When I came up for air I quickly figured out why my butt cheeks were so cold. My bathing suit bottoms were gone. I swam over to the edge nonchalant like and called Danielle over. After explaining the situation to her, she rounded up the other girls and they went searching. Too bad at this point all the boys were already laughing, pointing, and probably making comments like "you're the NAKED champion." I deserved it. I was too confident. They brought me my bottoms, I slipped them on, went and put on my jean shorts, and did some more dives.

Because nobody likes a naked diver.

I tried to find a picture of me from 7th grade to give you a visual image of my extreme awkwardness, but I didn't have any luck.

I did find this though, and I thought it was pretty cute.

Monica & Bret are married. One of my long time best friends has a different last name. She has a husband. I feel old.

It was a beautiful wedding. So much fun. I loved getting to spend time with my old posse. I never forget how much I love them, but every time we get the chance to spend time together I think I start loving them more...if that's possible, i'm not sure. So, here are some snap shots of the wonderful, crazy day.

Mr. & Mrs. eating

My beautiful friend

All of us, and one of our favorite ladies, our wonderful high school choir teacher, Chi Chi. Who put up with so much, and loved us like we were her own. She told me at the wedding that she always knew our group was different from all the rest some how, that we were bonded more than any high school friends she had ever seen. That was sweet, and special. Love her.

This picture doesn't need an explanation.

Post wedding madness:

I'm working like a crazy person, and attempting to cram a semester's worth of statistics into three weeks. The first round of campers arrives next week, which is going to be a whole new experience for me. There's a new SUPER adorable coffee shop in Belton. I sat in shock for about 15 minutes over how cute it was. I kept thinking "am I really in Belton? Nah, I must have time traveled to Austin." But I didn't, it's right here in Belton, and just the cutest little thing you ever did see. I hope it survives, because I'm already in love with it. I think that sums up all that is new here.

Oh, actually one more thing.

331 days until I graduate from college.

Mallow Brains

I have officially completed the 60 hours of orientation needed to be a student nurse tech! What does this mean? Well, it means that I don't have to sit in a classroom and listen to lectures for 8 hours every day! Starting Sunday when I get back from Monica & Bret's wedding I'll have my first shift on the floor...all. night. long. I'm nervous, excited, and ready!

In other news, living alone is kind of boring. I mean, not much could be more exciting than living with the people I lived with last year. Glee and So You Think You Can Dance have been the big highlights of my day. Loving TV shows isn't all bad.

Last night on Glee I learned the word magnanimous.

My grandma used to tell my cousins and I that if we watched too much TV our brains would turn into marshmallows and that it would slowly start coming out of our ears. It's such a strange mental image, I'm not sure why it provokes the word "yum" into my brain. Maybe because all I did today was learn how to stage and treat pressure ulcers. Marshmallow brains sound like a delicacy in comparison.

Anyway, I don't think that people whose vocabulary includes magnanimous have marshmallows for brains.

Okay, wow. See what happens to me when I'm alone? Tangents like that.

Tomorrow I'll head to Keller to see one of my best friends of all time get married to the boy she has loved since high school. I am so excited for her, and him. It's a little unbelievable that we are at the point of our lives where marriage is pretty normal. I think it's going to be hard to believe until I'm standing up in front watching her walk down the isle. I'm so excited.